The Warren Wreck

The
Warren Wreck, located at about 170 feet of depth off
of
ambulance point in Lake Crescent, is an amazing dive back into history.
Blanch and Russell Warren were returning home from Port Angeles on July 3rd,
1929 to be with their sons for the 4th of July. They never made it home,
disappearing without a trace, and leaving a mystery that took nearly 75 years to
solve.

Highway 101 was a treacherous road
along the southern shore of Lake Crescent back in the day.
It was long suspected that the Warren's car had slid off the
road into the lake, but numerous attempts to drag the lake,
as well as exploratory dives had failed to turn up their
vehicle.

The Warren boys, Charles and
Frank were only 12 and 14 when their parents disappeared.
They had a hard life, teased that their parents had run off
and both died tragically without knowing what had really
happened to Mom and Dad.

Fast
forward to 2001, and we have Bob Caso, a former diver that
keeps hounding Dan Pontbraind, a Ranger for the Olympic
National Park, to continue the search for the Warren's 1927
Chevrolet. Evidence gathered in 1929 suggested the
wreck had happened on Madrona Point, but there was no "Madrona
Point" on any of the maps of the Lake. A
fortunate glance up the cliff near "Meldrim Point" (aka
Ambulance Point) from a boat, revealed an old Madrona tree
hiding among the fir trees.

The search began in earnest near
ambulance point (mile marker 223), and in 2002, the Park
Service Dive Team found the Warren's 1927 Chevrolet in 170
feet of water, just East of the point. Human remains
were discovered nearby by John Rawlings in 2004, which DNA
testing later proved to be those of Russell Warren.

Today, the car sits on a very steep
slope, with the top of the car down hill. The bottom
of the car is upslope and is more than half covered with
rocks, making the vehicle very hard to spot from above.
However, swimming along at about 165' the wreck is easily
located, and the clear waters of the lake make this a very
nice dive.

Diving the Warren Wreck requires a
permit from the National Park Service and is just a bit too
deep for recreational divers. There is a nice staging
area and good parking right at "Ambulance Point". Be
safe and have a great dive on an interesting bit of
Northwest History.